08-08-08 Russian Imperial Stout Exchange

[Evets]

I got my list. Should be mailing on Sat.

 

[BierMuncher]

I got my list. Should be mailing on Sat.

I PM'd everyone letting them know when to expect theirs.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I can't, in good conscience, send out a product I've yet to sample. So, I chilled an 888 tonight, despite my insistence that I'd wait till August, and poured it into one of my recently acquired Mikasa beer glasses (the fat tulip one). To my dismay, it was BARELY carbonated. There was a hiss when I opened the bottle, but the beer poured with no head, and it was nearly flat. Due to the long clearing period and high ABV, I knew this was a possibility. I also primed for slightly less than 2.0 volumes, but I did add some Nottingham when bottling. I estimate less than 1.0 volumes of carbonation - just enough to hint at CO2.

I'm not going to give any tasting notes because I want honest feedback, but the high ABV and some of the strong flavors I'm getting sort of lend themselves to a nearly still beer (dare I say, like Utopias?). I'm really enjoying it, even mostly flat, which leads me to my dilemma:

Do I attempt to fix it, or do I send it out as is? I have no equipment on hand, but EdWort is a short drive away, and he could help if I choose to uncap each bottle, sprinkle in a few grains of dry champagne yeast, and recap.

I think I run the risk of overcarbonation (probably not bottle bombs) should I attempt to fix the issue, and this beer definitely lends itself to undercarbonation vice too much. Also, the beer has only been bottled for a month (to the day), and it might continue to carbonate slowly over the course of the next few months.

So, if you were the recipient of my beer, would you rather have me try and fix it, or leave it as is? I'm leaning toward shipping it as is, but if the response is strongly toward attempting a fix, I can be persuaded. Either respond within this thread or PM me as you see fit. I'm open to suggestion, with my aforementioned bias.

EDIT:
I'm NOT asking HOW to fix the "problem"...simply if you'd like to see me try.

 

[Brewsmith]

I'd say leave it as is. When I bottled mine yesterday I ended up with about 8 oz that I poured into a glass. It was great warm and flat. I would be happy getting some even if the carbonation was minimal.

 

[Evets]

Leave it as is. RIS is traditionally a bit under-carbed anyway.

 

[olllllo]

I say leave it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

There's three pretty respected opinions that agree with my gut feeling. I don't wanna hijack the thread too much for one brewer's beer, so if you feel strongly enough to share your opinion (especially if it differs), just send a PM my way.

 

[Chriso]

I say leave it.

I also say.... this should be an excuse for me to uncap one of mine. But I won't, because I was gonna take one (precious) bottle to the homebrew meeting on Thursday instead.

I should probably brew another batch of this ASAP, because my 23 bottles are going to go very, very quickly. But I know that the dregs, when I bottled, were delicious as hell.

I also also say.... damn you for living so close to EdWort, I'm jealous now!

 

[BierMuncher]

Leave it.

When I receive mine, they're going to sit in a knook in the kitchen until 8-8. It's always 70 degrees there. I'd imagine any under carb'd beer would improve under those conditions.

Besides, when the time comes, I'm going to manipulate the pour so I get a nice 45 degree, relatively flattenned out stout to enjoy.

 

[landhoney]

Does Campden kill Brett too? Because in order to prevent bottle bombs from ongoing Brett fermentation, but to still enable me to bottle it now, I was thinking hit it with Campden, keg, force carb, wait a week to stabilize, then BMBF it. Crazy idea?

Too late? Sorry I missed this, a friend did this with his stout and a few months into it the beers are fine so far(no overcarbonation). He used a fining agent first though, before adding the campden tablets. He then 're-yeasted' and bottle carbed, but of course the BMBF should work fine.

edit>FYI, I tasted one of these a month back and it was very good. THICK though, felt like the carbonation was having a tough time making it up and out of the beer. Brown head, moderate/low carbonation.

 

[McKBrew]

Although I tried to resist, I ended up sampling a couple of bottles over the last two weeks. Overall, I think it will be a decent RIS, but I have identified some improvements I will make the next time I brew one.

As far as the swap goes, I know who I am sending to, but are these the same people who will be sending to me?

Looking forward to trying other interpretations of this beer.

 

[BierMuncher]

...As far as the swap goes, I know who I am sending to, but are these the same people who will be sending to me?
...

Most likely not.

I sent Chriso a "Random Name Selector" excel program. Should have been completely random, but some names may be reciprocal.

To prevent Chriso from getting a slew of PM's, I'd suggest we PM our recipients to let them know we drew their names. I’ve already sent off a PM to my folks and thankfully so. One individual will be in the middle of a move so I will delay his package.

Plus, the shipping / delivery times for this swap are pretty broad. A courtesy PM letting your recipient know your expected ship date (range) will keep Chriso from getting the usual “Hey…who drew my name…I haven’t got my beer yet…” messages.

 

[korndog]

Yeah, my mailbox is empty. I feel like the forgotten man.

I sent my guys PM's already.

 

[Chriso]

Good timing, Landhoney! No, haven't mucked with the raspberry yet, it's still chilling in the basement. Project 1 this weekend is take a gravity reading, then see what's up. I plan to mail packages around 4/15 so that I have time to adjust the raspberry however necessary, and bottle it up.

EVERYBODY, PLEASE when you receive your lists, PM all of the recipients on the list you received, and let them know that you got them, and that you'll be shipping on x date. Thanks in advance.
Sorry to echo you, BierMuncher, thanks for filling in. I didn't notice I had wrapped to Pg 5 of this thread already and thus didn't see your post!

 

[Evets]

My beers went out today. My recipients have been notified.

 

[Chriso]

I'll go ahead and offer the next set of instructions, even though not everyone's ready for them.

WHEN YOU SHIP YOUR BEERS, Please go to the Sampling & Critique forum (the one this thread is in) and create a NEW THREAD.

TITLE THIS THREAD "RIS Swap - *Yourname*'s Beers"

Within the thread, please post: How many beers you sent out, to whom, and what beers they are. Especially if you use abbreviations on the bottle caps, PLEASE post what each abbreviation stands for.

An excellent example of this is (this thread).

Again, you are creating YOUR OWN new thread. When your recipients get their beers, they post IN YOUR THREAD. When you receive someone else's beer, you post the review in THEIR thread.

Any ?'s, PM or reply! Thanks all and happy shipping!

 

[BierMuncher]

I have a keezer malfuntion. The RIS is carb'd and ready to go. But my keezer is dead. I'm gonna get to order a new one this week but I may be a bit delayed getting the beer out of the keg and into bottles. I'd expect a week's delay.

 

[PseudoChef]

I'm still waiting to hear from one person. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Evets]

I'm actually receiving beer from two of the guys I sent to. I haven't heard from the third yet, or even heard of him before, but I sent him beer anyway.

 

[brewt00l]

I'm still waiting to hear from one person. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I haven't heard from anyone yet...

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I haven't heard from anyone yet...

You, terrapin, and ETOJ are my recipients. I haven't sent anything yet. It'll be in the mail soon.

 

[brewt00l]

You, terrapin, and ETOJ are my recipients. I haven't sent anything yet. It'll be in the mail soon.

Kewl. I have my submissions all boxed up and just have to hit the shipping place.

 

[olllllo]

yeah busted me too.
More toward the EOM.

 

[Chriso]

In the past, there have been murmurs of "the system losing PMs" .... Kevin Dean and I both had sent PMs to TxBrew that he didn't receive. Never heard back if it was a "real issue" or just crossed wires. Don't know if there were more occurrences than just mine.

If you've sent a PM already, but you notice one of your recipients here talking about never getting the PM, might be best to make a note of it to Tx, and re-send the PM to the recipient.

Again, I don't know if this is a "real" server issue, or something more complex (special characters?) OR something completely non-issue/mistake oriented, but I figured it would be worth it to point it out.

----

That said, if you haven't yet PMed your recipients, DO SO, PLEASE!

If you are concerned and want to know who drew your name, PM me and I will look it up. Just please be patient, as I'm in wedding planning hell right now, tomorrow marks 2 months to go, and we have a lot of work left to do.

 

[Chriso]

Sonofabiyatch.

I f'ed up a couple names. Evets, your comment about "two of the people" got me looking into PMs (because I thought you should only be receiving from ONE of your three )......... Long story short, Evan and Evets both got Flowerysong for spot #3, then Prof Frink got Brewt00l for #3 instead of Yuri, then the next one on the list was correct.

I would "fix" the problem by taking Yuri, but he's already in my #1 spot.

Evan!, if you haven't mailed your packages yet, please PM me! The "easy" fix to this problem is to switch Flowerysong out of your #3 spot in exchange for Yuri_Rage. (I sent you a PM too, in case.)

The funny thing is that when I was preparing PMs, the first 6 names on my list took 10 minutes each, and had the most errors. Then I RDWHAHB'd, and the other 24 names on the list just finished themselves - accurately!

Edit: I wasn't kidding about those first 6 names. While auditing the rest of the list for more errors, I found I had doubled another person up. Already contacted DeathBrewer and Brewsmith, correction has been made. This time, I just had to send the right address, the one that should've gone out to begin with.

 

[Evets]

No big deal. I have no problem with a couple of direct one on one swaps as long as I get my share.

 

[Professor Frink]

So I'm still sending to Brewt00l right?

 

[olllllo]

So I'm still sending to Brewt00l right?

First base.


Chriso any reason why we can't just post the names?

 

[Professor Frink]

First base.

Huh? I don't get it.

 

[Chriso]

No, I just have to re-type the list. BM's spreadsheet works primarily off of real name. And I dont want you all to have your real names posted up here.

I will take the spreadsheet w/ me to work tomorrow, and will have the Who-got-Who up tomorrow.

I'd do it now, but like I said, I have to do a bit of manual labor on it.

Edit: Prof Frink, you are still fine. It was the person shipping TO you whose list I messed up. Basically, had I not checked for errors (this is actually the third time, I didn't catch EITHER error the first two times through.), you and Yuri Rage would have been short one box of beer. Likewise CBBaron and Flowerysong would have ended up PLUS one box of beer each. (Sorry guys, I know you weren't going to complain about getting extra beer! )